Heading to Florida

Brad and I worked all day and the boys had school. I drove to pick up Brad in Ann Arbor and head to the airport for our 7:30 flight. The drive to the airport shaved 2 years off my life. It was harrowing to say the least. The road was covered in ice and light snow was falling. There were so many accidents that 94 was stopped. Luckily Brad knew back roads to get us to the airport. We were only able to check in and grab a quick bite to eat before getting on the plane. Once on the plane we were delayed because of the weather for a little over an hour. This was the boys' first airplane ride, well, Jack rode one at 9 months but that doesn't count. They were so excited! They had to check out everything in the pocket in front of them. They studied the safety flier and I swear they could have led us all to safety if needed. Luke wanted to know what he was holding. I told him it was a little garbage bag instead of a barf bag. The twins charmed the pants off of everyone on the flight. With our delay the boys kept shouting out, 'When are we blasting off?!' That had everyone laughing.

Jack sat across the aisle with Daddy. He was a very big boy about the whole thing. We had a pretty smooth flight and Pop, Grandpa MacDonald, picked us up from the airport.

I divided the blog posts into days at Disney because there was just too much to show. It'll also keep me from repeating everything 20 times. I haven't even gotten all the pictures from the two grandparents. I let them do most of the picture taking. I'll actually be in a couple then. I'll post some of the best of theirs later.

Enjoy our trip...

Magic Kingdom-Our First Day!

This is a very appropriate picture...Mickey wiping his brow as we finally got the boys rounded up for the picture. Tell me about it Mickey!! These were the only pictures with characters for the trip. The boys were not too sure of them to get any other good pictures.

A shot with all the grandparents. Logan is the one pouting. He couldn't wait to get away.

I had been planning for months, surprise, surprise, what our first ride should be when we got to the Magic Kingdom. I decided on It's a Small World. Here's Jack as we start out the ride.

We all kept staring at the boys' expressions. They sat open-mouthed at all there was to see.

Here are the boys with Grandma MacDonald and dad waiting to get on the Aladdin carpet ride. Mommy had to sit this one out because it spins around.

Jack posing by the Jungle Cruise.

The boys saw the race cars and had to drive them. The girls said they'd take pictures if the men went with them.

Luke and Grandpa Fish...

Logan and Pop...

Jack and Daddy.

Cute video of Logan driving.

Finishing our evening watching the fireworks. The boys were enthralled. The fireworks were spectacular!

A clip of the fireworks show to end our day.

Epcot / Downtown Disney

Today, our 2nd day in the parks, we started with Epcot. Here we are about to enter the 'Living Seas' building. We headed straight for the 'Nemo and Friends' ride. Before we went in we posed with a cool statue. Notice how we're dressed. Now, I'm not complaining because Michigan had -30 temperatures, but we were cold to start our days. By the afternoon we could shed the winter coats and just have sweatshirts.

After the Nemo ride we wandered the aquarium. Here's Luke pointing out the fish he sees.

...real Nemos!

We went to the 'Kodak Imagaination' building next. The boys, and Grandma MacDonald, danced on these spots on the floor which turned on different instruments that played music.

After doing the young children friendly rides at Epcot, we left for Downtown Disney. We visited Legoland while we waited for our dinner reservations. Of course we had to make some small purchases. Here the boys are posed with Pop, Grandpa MacDonald, in front of a shark and fish made out of Legos.

We got into a very cool restaurant with very little wait, amazingly. It's called T-Rex. It's pretty much a Rainforest Cafe with a dinosaur theme. There are dinosaurs all over the restaurant that come alive every 15 minutes or so. Very cool! I highly recommend it!

The grandparents enjoyed it too! Fun for all ages!

The group is standing to the left...hard to tell though.

We got a free 30 minute pass to play video games in the arcade. We ended the evening at our hotel driving all kinds of games. Jack and dad are doing the motorcycle game.

Animal Kingdom / Crazy Day

We started off today, our 3rd day, in the Animal Kingdom park. We ran straight to the back of the park to get on the Kilamonjaro Safari ride, one of the most popular. It's a giant jeep that goes on a 'safari'. Here are a couple animals we saw...

The boys requested to see alligators. These were crocodiles, but they didn't seem to mind.

...a mother and her baby giraffe.

Mommy and Daddy needed a break so the grandparents watched the kids while we went and rode Disney's newest rollercoaster, Expedition Everest. I'm glad I rode it, but once was enough. Most of the ride is inside the mountain. You stop inside and then the ride switches to going backwards just as fast as forwards, then switches back again. I was dizzy the rest of the day. Brad loved it.

The boys getting tired of posing in front of things. The 'Tree of Life' in the center of the Animal Kingdom.

The grandparents gave Mommy and Daddy the rest of the day off. Here they are taking the tram to go back to the hotel for lunch and a nap. Daddy and I headed off to go back to Epcot.

At Epcot, the wind died down and it got warmer. Brad forgot to pack a t-shirt in the backpack for the day so he had to buy one. What an appropriate choice! He was very happy to find beer and wine venders right on the street. He polished off a couple while we walked through the countries around the lagoon. Epcot was followed by an attempt to go back to the Magic Kingdom to do 'big people rides'. However, it was so packed you could hardly walk down the streets. It turns out Disney was hosting the collegic and high school cheerleading and dance competition the next day. All the cheerleaders invaded the parks. We stood in line for Thunder Mountain Railroad for almost an hour and a half, the fast passes were all out, and decided to call it quits. We were stuck in the twisting lines with valley girls texting and shouting 'Oh my god, guess what?!' They all had their hair up in cheerleader ribbons, perky and bouncing around... too much for us. We opted for a quiet dinner for two. We checked in with the grandparents and they had tried the Hollywood Studios with the same result...cheerleader invasion. We gave up for the day.

Magic Kingdom Last Day

Do you have your Petey's??!!! That's an inside joke between the twins. Brad and I haven't quite figured it out yet. It has something to do with Pete from the Mickey cartoons. That's why we took this picture. It was our 4th and final day in the parks. We chose to skip the Hollywood Studios park because there wasn't much for the kids. We tried to run around and do as many rides as we could before the cheerleading competition ended and the cheerleaders flooded the parks again. We were able to do everything we wanted with very little wait.

The boys got to ride at the very front of the monorail with the driver. The twins didn't see the significance of this. They were more interested in their maps...well, they're their father's boys.

We took a break in the middle of the day for lunch and a swim. Finally a day that was warm enough to do it. There was a little bit of wind which put a chill in the air, but we didn't care.

The pool was really cool! It had a serpent that swirled around and over it. At the end was a slide here with Trident from the Little Mermaid on top. The boys loved it! Here's Jack with dad waiting for him. All three coming down!
Back to the Magic Kingdom to end the day. Here's Grandma Fish riding Dumbo with Jack. Brad was tired at this point and the Grandma's were the only other two who wouldn't get sick on the ride.

Here's Grandma MacDonald with Luke and Logan. They were very excited to go up high



Here's video of the Dumbo ride.

The boys all headed back to the hotel so the girls could go shopping. We had someone take our picture as an end to our visit.

The fireworks to end our Disney World stay!

Last Day in Florida

This was our last day in Florida. We woke up and had a nice breakfast, without rushing. We said our good-byes to Grandma and Grandpa, they had an earlier flight, and Grandma and Pop, they wanted to get on the road to drive home. That left Brad and I with 3 hours to kill before our shuttle to the airport, and no help. We played on the playground...

Jack on the slide. This didn't hold their attention for very long.

We moved onto a long walk around our hotel complex. It's really a nice setting. The hotel is on the Disney grounds. It's called Port Orleans French Quarter resort. It's really a glorified hotel room with a nicer look. Each building is around a river or set of gardens.

Here is our hotel building. We had a 'garden' view room...a bit cheaper. The grandparents were able to be in rooms right in a row with us. That made it nice for getting around.

Disney pays attention to every detail. They made narrow cobblestone streets and had horse drawn carriages that gave rides...too expensive.

Of course on our last day it was beautiful weather. It was 73 and very little wind. We just enjoyed sitting with our faces in the sun and rolling in the grass (the boys). We were very sad to have to leave. When the plane landed in Detroit it looked like we were landing in a snow drift. Oh well, back to reality. It was nice while it lasted!

Jack Turns 5

Jack turned 5 January 6th!! I can't believe how fast time has flown! He requested a police car cake. We had to drive to Saline to get the cake pan, but it was worth it. I used a Reeses Peanut Butter cup for the light at the top and then covered it with red frosting. I made the Michigan State Police shield by printing out the photo and then gluing golf tees to them, then they just slid on. Brad said it looked like a VW bug, but oh well.

This was Brad's idea for the license plate. 'Creep' is Jacks's nickname. I believe it started the very day he was born.

Jack posing with his cake. We lined up the five candles on the hood.

Happy Birthday Jack!!

Taking first bites of the cake. To get the dark blue color I had to use a lot of food coloring so their mouths all turned blue.

I made another plain cake for the adults to eat.

It's so hard to buy presents for a kid that just had Christmas. Right now he's on present overload. Here he is opening his pirate stuff from Grandma and Grandpa Fish. Luke and Logan got to be pros at opening at Christmas. They volunteered to help.

Grandma and Pop got Jack a jeep with a horse trailer.

Mom and Dad's big present was an automatic nerf baseball pitcher. We were getting tired of tossing balls to all three. Our basement is long enough that the boys can hit nerf balls down there.

Happy Birthday Jack!